Washington Elementary adds Tablet Time to kindergarten classes

The Hanover district plans to expand the new program in the next fiscal year

By Lauren Linhard

llinhard@eveningsun.com

@linhardreports on Twitter

Posted:
03/18/2014 10:04:44 PM EDT

Students from Jessica Schlechter's kindergarten class explore a number of math apps with their tablets at Washington Elementary on March 14. (Clare Becker - The Evening Sun)

Marissa Hagerman, a 5-year-old student in Jessica Schlechter's kindergarten class, is learning how to spell. Sounding out each letter, she carefully writes the words "act" and "like" before raising her hand for her teacher to check her work.

But instead of handing Schlechter a piece of paper and pencil, Marissa proudly holds up her Android tablet, displaying the correct spelling of each word.

Tablet Time, as this daily lesson is called, has become a permanent part of the curriculum at Washington Elementary after Google invited the class to be a beta tester last summer.

Kindergartner Nathan Spertzel tests out his tablet during Tablet Time on March 14. (Clare Becker - The Evening Sun)

The technology has led to great success in the classroom, said David Fry, technology director for the Hanover Public School District.

"In the younger grades, tablets work really well," Fry said. "Kids don't totally know their letters or numbers yet, so a tablet is a lot easier to use than something with a keyboard."

Previously, the younger students were using laptops, which are more suited to second grade and up, Fry said. The district plans to purchase tablets for all kindergarten and first-grade classes by the end of the next fiscal year, he added.

"The students are around this kind of technology from the time they are born," Fry said. "They understand it and can learn from it. This is the future."

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Heather Wagaman, the teacher who had been working with the class before Schlechter took over in February, started the school year by introducing the tablet technology. She spent three lessons using a shared tablet to go over rules and how to use the device.

By the third week of school, students were using the tablets by themselves, she said.

"They picked it up right away, making things bigger or swiping out of programs before I even showed them how to," Wagaman said. "All students learn in different ways, so the tablet is not replacing anything. It's just an added tool to the curriculum."

A student pauses after typing the word 'like' on his tablet as he follows along with the class lesson on March 14. (Clare Becker - The Evening Sun)

The class still does a lot of writing with pencil on paper — a skill that is imperative, Wagaman said — and uses books during story time and guided reading lessons. The tablet is simply a way to enhance the skills students have already learned, she said.

"It's not really about the way you learn it, but that you learn it," Wagaman said.

Cyber safety

To ensure Washington Elementary students remain in a secure environment during Tablet Time, Technology Director David Fry designed a central management system that allows teachers to control what students have access to.

That means students can only use an app when it is selected for the specific lesson, Fry said.

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